Title: Grilling Over an Open Fire
Author: Kita_the_spaz
Prompt: Burned Dinners
Rating: PG

Iruka was still laughing when they left the school after sending the last of the little hellions home for the evening.

"It's not that funny," Kakashi grumbled around the armful of things Iruka had him carrying.

"I'm sorry, but it was. If you could have seen the look on your own face when Moegi started singing…" Iruka snickered.

"That wasn't singing, that was strangling a cat and then stomping on it." Kakashi said sourly.

Iruka laughed heartily. "You have no musical appreciation, Kakashi-san."

"That was about as far from music as you can get and still be on the same planet."

Iruka smirked. "Come on. I'll buy you dinner to make up for subjecting you to that."

"Not ramen."

"Does everyone think that's the only bloody thing I eat because I treat Naruto to it all the time?" Iruka asked in amusement.

Kakashi snorted.

To his surprise, Iruka curled up the corner of his mouth in a smile that effectively killed the image of an innocent teacher, stomped it flat, mauled it some more and set it on fire for good measure. "I have wide and varied tastes…"

Kakashi felt his mouth drop open at the sultry tone in Iruka's voice.

"In food." Iruka laughed again and Kakashi felt the corners of his own mouth turn up in response. He'd known from the first moment he'd met Naruto that the Iruka-sensei the boy was so devoted to had to be something special. He'd never known he had such an interesting sense of humor though.

Iruka grinned at him and tapped his arm. "How 'bout over there?" He pointed at a restaurant where you were served plates of meat and vegetables to cook over the small charcoal brazier set into the center of each table.

Kakashi nodded and followed Iruka into the small restaurant. They were seated in a booth that the owners obviously reserved for their shinobi patrons, one that had a clear line of sight to the door and all possible attack routes. Iruka made small talk as they were served. Kakashi debated how best to eat without showing his face. Iruka swiftly grilled several of his pieces before pointedly looking elsewhere as he ate. He didn't even look back when he heard the sizzle of the meat hitting the metal grille.

Kakashi sighed as he took a bite, while more of his food cooked. "Thank you." He could have been thanking Iruka for the food or for him respecting his privacy. Kakashi wasn't sure.

Iruka smiled, though he kept his attention on his own plate. "You're welcome."

Kakashi flipped the pieces of meat still on the grill. "So how else are you planning on torturing me?"

Iruka snorted. "I'm not planning on torturing you, Kakashi-san. That might have been Tsunade-sama's intentions, but I assure you it's not mine. I wasn't aware that leaving you to watch over a roomful of pre-genin would be so traumatizing that you would have to call your dogs to rescue you."

Kakashi shot him a sharp glare, but the chuunin was still looking down at his plate.

Iruka chuckled. "I've been asking Tsunade-sama for help for a while now. Every year we have a celebration of the holidays at the school, and unfortunately, we're chronically shorthanded. It's a bit of a send-off sort of thing. The teachers going "We don't have to see you again until after the New Years," and the kids because they get to be out of school. A welcome break for all, but as short-staffed as we are, it's been a real hassle the past couple of years." Iruka laughed quietly. "I do appreciate the help, even if I don't know what you did to piss the Hokage off enough to make her assign you to help. I'm usually stuck with the job of coordinating the whole damned thing."

He picked up a piece of grilled onion and pretended to study it in a way that made Kakashi sure that it was so he didn't accidently glance up at the copy-nin's face. "If it's any consolation, I won't keep you past this weekend, in spite of Tsunade-sama assigning you to me until the New Years." Iruka said. "After that, you can take a few days off and observe the holidays as you wish."

"I don't celebrate the holidays." Kakashi didn't even realize how bitter his own voice sounded until he saw the instinctive tensing of Iruka's shoulders. Iruka's fingers tightened around his chopsticks, like he was anticipating an attack.

"I'm sorry…" Kakashi sighed. "But I'm usually on a mission over the holidays, not stuck here in the village."

He almost didn't hear Iruka's next question, it was spoken so softly that the soft chatter of the restaurant and the quiet sizzle of the meat nearly drowned it out. "Why do you hate the holidays so much, Kakashi-san?"

"I don't hate them." He saw Iruka's reflexive twitch to look up at his face and sighed, tugging his mask back into place. "You can look now, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka glanced up and turned to face him. "Don't lie to me. I teach pre-genin. I know when someone is lying."

Kakashi sighed and looked down at his hands, toying idly with his chopsticks. "I don't remember a holiday where I wanted to be a part of the celebration. When I was four, my mother died right around Christmas. The year after was the year my father went on that damned mission. The one that cost so many lives and every bit of respect he had ever earned. He had no desire to celebrate the holidays after that. When he died two years later, I had already become chuunin and had no time or interest in celebrating the holidays."

Iruka looked up at him, his brown eyes dark with shared pain. "I felt the same the year my parents died, but I remembered that the holidays are a good time for remembering what we have lost over the year and looking forward to a new one that might be better."

"Hnn."

"Kakashi-san?"

"Mmm?"

"Naruto and I celebrate the holiday together since we have no one else. Would you like to join us this year?"

Kakashi looked up, startled.

"Would you?"

He looked down at his hands again. He was silent for so long that Iruka finally called his name again.

"Kakashi-san, we'd like to have you come over. Naruto is trying to talk Sasuke into coming too. We're all alone. But together we don't have to be quite as alone."

Kakashi said nothing.

"Kakashi-san?"

Finally, in a faint whisper, Kakashi murmured his acceptance.

"Kakashi-san?"

"Hnn?" He still didn't look up, a little afraid of the soft look he'd seen momentarily on Iruka's tanned face.

"Kakashi-san?"

"What?"

"Your meat is burning."